'Inadequate' Northampton care home given six months to improve after inspectors find lack of 'dignity or respect'

Alastair Ulke

A pair of Northampton care homes managed by a team without "any form of quality assurance" for their patient's safety or well being has been branded "inadequate", a report says.

CQC Inspectors found a culture at St Michaels Lodge and House, in St Michaels Avenue, off Kettering Road, where residents were "not valued", with mismatched medicine records and an "uncaring" service for patients.

Residents were also being prompted to shave using an electric razor that was shared amongst everyone living at St Michaels. Bedroom doors were also locked during the day and people weren't trusted with keys because "they are expensive to replace".

St Michaels Lodge, which has room for 24 residents between them, even earned a "good" rating at its last inspection in 2016, while St Michaels House was marked as "requires improvement".

But in a report published in June 2017, both homes have dropped to the lowest grading possible despite being led by the same team of managers.

The CQC report says: "[Records show] people had not received their prescribed medicines, however, staff had recorded that they had been administered. The provider was unaware of the medicine errors until that we found.

"People were not always treated with dignity and respect. [They] were not always referred to respectfully and could not be assured that they would receive person centred care."

"The service was not well-led. There was a task led culture whereby people living in the home were not valued and their views not sought or acted upon."

St Michael's Lodge and St Michaels House are managed respectively by Raymond Galbraith and Anne Going. Two reports were published following an unannounced inspection in April - but both proved inadequate.

The care homes have been placed in special measures by the CQC and have been given six months to improve or face being shut down.

St Michaels was approached over the reports, but no one was available to comment.